Israel’s Best Friends

Rudy Giuliani is often considered the most pro-Israeli candidate in the presidential race. He’s been given kudos for ejecting Yasser Arafat from a concert in New York city back in 1995, for numerous statements in support of Israeli policies, and for refusing a $10 million dollar check from an Israel-bashing Saudi prince after 9/11. Furthermore, his key foreign policy advisors (Norman Podhoretz, Daniel Pipes) are long-time hawks and Israel partisans.

But is it accurate to paint Giuliani, and other unquestioning supporters, as Israel’s biggest allies? Gershom Gorenberg, over at The American Prospect, doesn’t think so:

Being pro-Israel does not require backing the most bellicose possible Israeli position, anymore than being “pro-American” requires backing the war in Iraq. To be “pro” means to support, to want a country to survive and flourish.

Gorenberg then goes on to make a useful assertion: that the most loyal friends of Israel do not automatically side with the wishes of Israeli policymakers. Instead, for the country’s own sake, they seek to apply continuous pressure for a withdrawal from the occupied territories and they work to facilitate peacemaking in the region. It’s sort of an obvious point, but it’s rarely said enough.